Daily Dose Pick: The Girl on the Train

André Téchiné’s moody character study springs from a recent cause célèbre in France: a young woman’s trumped-up story of an anti-Semitic assault on a train.

The act itself is of less importance than the before-and-after for the ever-curious French director, who sections his societal and psychological probe of the scandal into “Circumstances” and “Consequences.” Throughout both, the camera drifts along with the spacey, superficially carefree Jeanne (a magnetic Emilie Dequenne) as she rollerblades around the sun-dappled purlieus of Paris; falls in amour fou with a would-be Olympic wrestler; spends dutiful time with mom Catherine Deneuve; and riles up the country with her troubling make-believe.

While Téchiné’s picture touches upon race, religion, and the all-in nature of media in contemporary France, it’s his insoluble portrait of this femme — folly and all — that lingers long after.